Sexism

The world is awash with the story that Julia Gillard stood up for women’s rights in the Australian Parliament yesterday against the “misogynist” Opposition leader. Here’s an alternate opinion, one that confirms that this tirade had nothing to do with sexism, & everything to do with politics. Keep in mind that her own Speaker was forced to resign yesterday because of his “references” to women’s genitalia, & this was the best show that the PM could put considering she didn’t have a leg to stand on during question time”. She now is down to a 1-vote majority.

Kim DotCom- Updates

I mostly thought of MegaUpload as an illegal site, an opinion I formed (as perhaps you too), entirely without using the site. It’s founder Kim DotCom (yeah, that’s his real name!) ‘s residence was raided & he was arrested by the New Zealand police, with much fanfare a few months ago. The case is throwing up some very interesting facts, besides getting very serious support for MegaUpload from some very respected judicial authorities (yes, they do exist!) in the US. “There has been a trail of illegality by the NZ Police, & the forces who incited this raid (read Hollywood)”.

Where’d You Get That Cool Shirt? This Software Knows

In case you hadn’t already noticed, everyone wants to sell you something.  (No, not me, at least, not yet! ;). In the ads race, a company has developed software that can automatically identify SPECIFIC products in visual media, & then serve up relevant advertisements. As this article says, “As one example, the software matched the sunglasses worn by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in an image accompanying a news article about the movie stars to similar pairs available on Amazon. A reader online who hovered a cursor over the object would see the tagged link for the product.” 

Go from Middle-Class to Kickass

Another blog that I’ve come across lately is run by Mr. Money Mustache (or moustache, whatever your spelling preferences may be!). The blog has some very interesting thoughts on the modern day employment scene, his personal experiences of going from a relatively highly paid job to retirement at the age of 43, & the strategies he’s employed. May not be for everyone, but won’t hurt to give it a thought, especially in these rather troubling economic times. This article is his personal experience of going from middle-class to kickass“

Big Data is Just Data, Why Excel “Sucks”, and 1,000 Miles of Data « PowerPivotPro

Feel free to glaze over this one, Why Excel sucks. I admit I’m an Excel nerd, and this may appeal to you if you understand or have experienced the “challenges” of working with dramatically changing reporting needs & multiply source data files. Hope is at hand, if you haven’t already heard of PowerPivot.

Why the United States Is So Afraid of Huawei

Huawei emerged on the telecommunications equipment supplier scene a few years ago, & have thrown a spanner in the works for established players, mostly propped up by the heavy-handed US government, under its open markets policy. The pill is bitter to swallow, now that the roles are reversed, China wields more clout economically, & so the US Congress does what it does best: “release” a report that “warns” that Huawei & ZTE (another Chinese company) pose a “threat to US National Security“.  Of course, the report doesn’t cite ANY evidence, but relies on “experts” to say that it is possible.
A moot question then would be to ask if any US companies that have supplied telco equipment to other countries should therefore also be regarded as a national security threat.

Jane Kelsey: Hollywood lays down its own law

Across the world, Hollywod helps create the same magic with legislation as it does with entertainment. The TPP (TransPacific Partnership) is a draft piece of legislation that currently is with the governments of 11 countries, all seemingly beside themselves, happy  to oblige the authors of the legislation, with little or no public discussion about it. Here’s a critique by Jane Kelsey, who writes in the NZ Herald News that Hollywood lays down its own law.